NEWS IN BRIEF.

Notables

Finding A Friend Where You Can

July 21, 1996|By Mark Wukas.

Push

Sapphire

Alfred A. Knopf, $20

In this novel, Precious Jones, a brutalized and illiterate Harlem teen, takes pen in hand to tell her story, and it isn't pretty. HIV-positive and pregnant for the second time with her father's child, Jones meets a lesbian pedagogue at her school, and the two form a friendship that frees Jones.